Schools of cool: jazz performance education providing a different kind of gig - Cover Story

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 22, 1998 by Ronald Roach

Janelle Gill is confident that she has a future in jazz. The eighteen-year-old freshman pianist began jazz performance studies last semester at Howard University. Since then, she has played in the school's big band and the small-group jazz ensembles.

Gill is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. She cites jazz pianists Theolonius Monk, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Mary Lou Williams as some of her chief influences. As a music education major at Howard, Gill expects to develop her piano skills to the point where she can comfortably earn a living in professional jazz -- by performing, recording in the studio, and teaching.

"I've always wanted to have a career in music," Gill says. "Howard has a decent program. They have a lot of talent in their faculty."

Hundreds of young musicians such as Gill enroll in colleges, universities, and music conservatories each year in the hope of obtaining the jazz training necessary to become full-time professionals. For decades, these institutions have been providing fertile ground for the support and survival of jazz.

Although jazz education typically begins years before a student gets to these institutions, more and more collegiate programs are becoming vital links between professional hopefuls and the music community they aspire to join.

"A student who comes to us is already a highly accomplished musician," says Dr. Arthur Dawkins, director of jazz Studies at Howard University. "The majority of the students at Howard aim to be performing full-time as musicians."

Jazz represents one of the truly great world musical traditions to develop in the United States. Its roots draw from both African and European influences. Although early on in its development the music was often used for dancing, eventually jazz became the medium for small ensembles that performed in both nightclubs and concert halls.

A Beat That Moves

It was perhaps inevitable that a music so widely popular and accepted would eventually find a home on American college and university campuses.

Since its beginning, jazz has been on the move. It has migrated across a considerable societal distance -- from the fringes of society to a central place in American culture. And despite its humble origins in the South, the music flourished and became a truly national phenomenon by the 1930s, aided by the emergence of touring big bands and radio.

As early as the thirties, a number of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the South sponsored developmental jazz big bands. Tuskegee University was a leader among these institutions.

Starting in the late forties, jazz programs at predominantly White institutions began sprouting around the country.

According to Dr. Bill Lee, the former executive director of the International Association of jazz Educators, by the late forties and fifties, jazz education was still struggling for acceptance in the academy. Music departments, which were dominated by classical music teachers, initially resisted the inclusion of jazz in the music curriculum.

"Over time, jazz became respected in an academic sense," Lee says. "Initially, jazz instructors contended with the jealousy of classical music faculty."

All that has changed. Some observers say that collegiate programs began filling a void left by the demise of jazz-oriented nightclubs -- which, for decades, functioned as training venues for young musicians -- and the decline in popularity of big bands.

Currently, some 200 institutions now offer programs in jazz performance. While many are based in the conservatories, the majority of jazz programs reside in college and university music departments. Institutions where jazz enjoys a high priority include New York University, the New School for Social Research, Indiana University, the University of Northern Colorado, and Howard University. Conservatories with thriving jazz programs include the New England Conservatory of Music, the East-man School of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Dr. Scott Deveaux, a music historian at the University of Virginia, said the jazz infrastructure has changed. At one time, aspiring professionals would become involved with local bands in the hope of being recruited to play in a national band. The local jazz groups were known as "territory bands" and many were based in Black communities.

The new infrastructure is a tapestry of institutions -- public schools, colleges, universities, and music conservatories.

Dr. Willie Hill, president-elect of the International Association of jazz Educators, says that there were many more outlets for young musicians to learn their craft back in the thirties and forties than there are now. He believes that today it is critical to have instruction begin in the public schools.

"I feel very encouraged by public schools that teach jazz history and performance," Hill says. "We've been going through ups and downs in public schools with jazz education. Now there's a resurgence in attention being paid to jazz. The climate is right for increasing jazz instruction in the public schools".